Jacob Seider’s Obituary, The World

Click to enlarge

Contributed by : Elissa Sampson

Object # 1480

December 23, 1924

Jacob Seider lived on Broome St and his funeral home performed the burial of a number of the Fire’s victims. To provide a free burial, Jacob Seider raised money and handled all of the chevra kadisha (burial society) arrangements for the Hebrew Free Burial Society at 245 Grand Street. His obituary from 1924 recounts that, “In 1911, nineteen women and three men burned to death in the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire were buried by him.”

Contribute an object!

Commentary

On 3/20/11, I interviewed Colonel Saul Strauss, born in 1919 whose grandfather was Jacob Seider. Seider was a member of Agudath Achim Chessed Shel Emeth. His daughter Sarah Seider Levy had worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory prior to the fire. Jacob Seider’s obituary from December 23, 1924 mentions his involvement with the Triangle Fire. It was published in The World (an older NYC paper run by the Pulitzer farmily which was merged into the New York World-Telegram in the 1930s). The World, obituary headline states “East Side ‘Shamus’ Joins Those He Saved from a Pauper’s Grave.”